Letters of termination supposedly stated the usual “…ability, knowledge and/or skills do not fit the Agency’s current needs.”
Utter nonsense, considering one of the terminated has a PhD in meteorology.
I’ll never understand the lack of foresight in this administration.
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They need to reduce the amount of people in gov workforce. It is that simple. When the oilfield goes bust nobody cares, people with Master Unlimited licenses and +14 years of experience go home. The message is sent no one is immune to layoffs.
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Cuts defiantly needed but this is not Jeaux bosses’ company. There are established reduction in force laws on the books for reducing the federal workforce. They were put in place to keep one party from removing those that didn’t support them. And other reasons. They are currently not using the established rules, and it is going to cost more money in the long run. Lying about people’s performance on probationary employees is about as low as it gets. But the masses seem to be getting off on people losing their jobs.
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In reply to Manuel_Cx, I’d agree, if I were certain there were people standing around the water cooler all day. All indications are that the work force reductions are being done to create a pool of funds with which to accord tax breaks to the folks that least need them.
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Ask yourself this:
Did we have a higher quality of life and more freedom when government was a lot smaller, there were fewer regulations, and taxes on the working class were lower?
Think about how unfunded federal mandates (regulations or strings attached to grants) increase state and local taxes.
Think about how 2025 regulations , as compared to 1965 regulations, increase the cost of housing.
We currently have a skilled labor shortage. We have too many skilled administrators running at half-throttle doing unproductive government work. We need these folks filling productive jobs at private companies.
Think about all the Americans that should be filling menial, low wage, jobs in the proactive American economy, but are instead employed beyond their capacity in government jobs. No wonder it takes so long for the government to accomplish the simplest tasks.
Think about all the “work optional” people sucking on the government sugar tit. Think about the cost of the hundreds of thousands of government employees administering a plethora of programs to enable the “work optional” lifestyle.
Government has grown like a cancer. We need to cut out the diseased tissue and reduce its size. Yes, inevitably some health tissue will be cut too, but that is just an expected side effect of necessary treatment.
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Source: https://wapo.st/41AGfVS (Gift article. No paywall)
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When I was hiring people for day labor they gathered in the morning around a service station. EVERYONE knew where to find them. Lawn service guys, building contractors, farmers all went there. But they never saw any obvious US citizens available, so they hired what was available. Down the road there were plenty of trailer trash you could buy meth and fentanyl from and a little further there were folks selling crack and heroin. But these patriotic citizens didn’t want to work so those of us who had work to be performed hired illegals. The people not at the service station looking for work are the true ‘work optional’ lifestyle people. Shakespeare said, "“The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars but in ourselves”
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Idle hands do the devil’s work.
If people have nothing to do but lay around waiting for their government checks and food stamps, and take drugs, or sell drugs, or often both, then that’s what they’ll do.
I’ve heard that 20% of what should be our workforce is out of the labor pool due to drugs.
It’s long past time to pull back the government sugar tit, and make work necessary again.
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It’s pretty easy statement to make anecdotally with no basis whatsoever. Who are these slacker administrators? And why aren’t they being laid off instead of the probationary new blood? I was a gov worker once upon a time, was I unproductive too just because I worked for the gov?
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tugsailor, other than having to obtain certain training in recent decades as a deep-sea mariner, regulations haven’t affected me badly at all.
Why do I pay taxes, when ultra-wealthy, and corporations pay little to none? I’m aware of the benefits that accompany the payment of taxes in this country. The jobs corporations ask the public to fill are not largesse; those jobs we do are the very reason they’ve accumulated wealth.
Do you mean unfunded federal mandates such as the Civil Rights Act of 1957 and 1964? The Voting Rights Act of 1965? Which mandates have affected you negatively?
The cost of new homes has a lot to do with their size, and built-in amenities (it’s a whole 'nother story when the shoddy workmanship is considered). Most new homes here in Texas are built by legal and illegal immigrants, low wages for them. So, why the high cost?
How are you familiar with government employees, other than green Coast Guard personnel, working beyond their mental or physical capacity?
I hope your doctor never includes some “expected side-effect” with any treatment.
I don’t disagree that trimming may be feasible, but wholesale political disarmament is not the answer.
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Can you tell me what specifically is this government sugar tit that I can get on as an able bodied young man so that work becomes optional? Like the names of the programs or whatever.
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If only any of that were true. The federal workforce is about the same size it was in 1970. You are going to see epic malfunctions in all areas as time goes on.You removed all the new hires and made damn sure that no one will ever apply for any of these jobs again and are doing your best to drive the rest out. You will have a core that won’t leave trying to do the jobs of 4 people and we all know how that goes.
There are a lot of knock-on effects people will not even realize until it is too late. NOAA forecasts and climate predictions for one thing are heavily used by the insurance industry. When NOAA declines to forecast hurricanes because no one is left that can do it and even talking to any other weather service becomes illegal, which I think it has already, be ready for all kinds of insurance rates to go WAY up.
Think of it like a ship with 20 people aboard. You can throw 18 of the 20 off and ship will go along OK for bit and you will be hero for saving money, but things will go sideways soon enough and everyone will act all surprised when it sinks because the people that got thrown off were the ones that would have fixed the issue.
- also the idea that any money will be saved is a horrible joke. None of this will do anything but COST money in the long term and medium term and short term federal payroll is such a small part of the budget firing everyone would hardly make a dent. You will notice that the proposed budget is essentially a huge cash transfer from the entire country to a few billionaires and deficits will go UP.
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I see many white multigenerational families with capable men that “scam the system” and work just enough to occasionally collect some workers comp, unemployment, food stamps, Section 8, etc. etc. Families where no one was worked consistently above the table in three generations.
Houses are generally built to “Code” that is the standard the contractors usually build to.”, whether the code actually applies where the house is being built or not. But the code often does not apply in many parts of rural America. The International Building Code is a one size fits all solution with some exceptions, such as earthquake requirements.
The code requires that the house be designed by an architect, that adds 20% to the cost. Most house are simple and standard enough that an architect is not necessary.
The code requires that a house be built of “graded lumber” from big corporate mills. Not lumber you cut on your own land or buy from a local mill, unless the use of your lumber is approved on a plan prepared and stamped by an engineer.
Codes require a lot of things that were not necessary for 200 years and that cost too much money now.
Excessive land use laws in many states allow nimby’s to delay and exacerbate the cost of building a home. Washington is difficult, but Texas is easy.
Just a few examples.
So the voters in Maine if they are unhappy should elect different people who make the codes, right? States rights. Has nothing to do with Texas or the federal government
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That was supposed to say MANY , not Maine.
Texas is well known for its build whatever you want land use regulations. That’s one of the reasons that Texas has low building costs.
Massachusetts, Washington, California, New York, etc. are well known for their high regulatory burdens and for their affordable housing crises.
Most, US States, have adopted some version of the International Building Code. There are some other major codes. In rural states, it’s common for single family homes in rural areas to be exempt from the Building Code.
Similarly, the NFPA Fire Code, with few exceptions, has been adopted by every state. Most of the fire code is good and necessary, but in some cases it goes too far at excessive cost in pursuit unnecessary perfection as it relates to single family homes.
In some States, a homeowner cannot do his own plumbing and wiring, but in others he can.
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Average cost of a new home where I live in Texas is a cool half-million. Shoddy workmanship included.
Example of WHAT?
It seems like you know people who try and game the welfare system and don’t like building codes because we didn’t have them 200 years ago. Neither of these issues is remotely related to firing half the government.
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Once upon a time, fresh out of grad school, I was a government worker too. I, along with my peers, were learning the job that we had been theoretically trained for in grad school. Frankly, we were certainly not overworked, nor was much actually expected of us. Switching to corporate office job was a rude awakening with a lot of nights and Saturdays in the office.
Some of my relatives had long government careers. Back when a competitive civil service exam picked the best prepared workers, and they were expected to be good at their jobs and complete their work on time to properly provide service to the public.
I do know a lot of poor white families that scam the welfare system for generations, and lead more or less work optional lifestyles that provide a lot of free time to grow, smoke, and sell pot.
Where did they get the opioids that got them started on hard drugs? Free from Medicaid.
Certain building code requirements (especially when building your own home) are an example of the excessive cost government, and why we have an affordable housing crisis.
Ever been audited by the arrogant young accountants at the IRS? Even had to successfully appeal an excessive IRS tax ruling to Tax Court?
I’m onboard with firing at least 25% of federal government workers, including every living sole at the feckless NMC. I know I can get by without them. I’m onboard with reducing regulations by 50%. I don’t need an oppressive Nanny State to take care of me. I know I can get by without them.
Don’t call this a MAGA fantasy.
I’m onboard with giving Ukraine as much assistance as it takes to defeat the Russians. I don’t care if it takes $$$10 Trillion. They are doing a hell of a good job considering that they have been fighting with us tying one hand behind their back.
We spent $$$ Hundreds of Trillions (in 2025 dollars) to contain aggressive Russian expansionism over the last 80 years. We lost over 60,000 dead in Russian proxy wars, wars that we lost, particularly Vietnam. The Ukrainians are containing Russia better than we ever did. And dying by the thousands to do it, with no loss of American lives, and only a few $$ Billion in assistance.
I am totally disgusted by Trump’s abandonment of Ukraine. I’m totally disgusted that Trump cannot keep Putin’s $&@! out of his mouth.
No Trump acolyte here.
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This conversation reminds me of a similar one I have with my fellow Seattlites.
I’m a centrist so I spend all my time arguing with the extremists on both sides.
I tell progressives that we need to double the police force and prosecutors. Our police force has dwindled to the size it was in 1959, even though the population is nearly 50% bigger. It was dwindling before the pandemic.
Back then progressives trumpeted the tax savings of shrinking this class of government worker. Most types of crime were declining. Why have more police?
A few smart people saw the demographic cliff of retirements looming and tried to warn the rest of us.
Good policing, they said, is all about identifying, investigating, and incarcerating the 20% of criminals that cause 80% of crime. That takes experience, so you better have a new generation of police leaders ready to go when this one retires. Few listened.
Then 2022 came and things changed overnight. The retirements came as predicted, hurried along by the rioting and pandemic. Then came a crime wave.
I tell my fellow Seattites, We have a crime wave because our police force is half the size per capita as a normal police force. There aren’t enough to catch the criminals.
The extreme progressives retort that the police are just government workers, and they are lazy and corrupt and there are too many of them anyway. The fact that we have crime is proof they do nothing, they say.
Sound familiar?
A lot of Seattlites believe as I do, as does the present mayor and city council. We’re trying to grow that pool of very necessary government workers. But it’s an uphill battle. Every industry wants good workers. They snap them up. And when you’ve disrespected a certain workforce the word gets out. It’s hard to get new recruits.
A lot of Progressives put their fingers in their ears and don’t want to listen.
Sound familiar?
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